Former NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg considered discussing European security arrangements with Russia without the backing of the alliance’s eastern members, according to a media report citing his memoirs.
The Estonian publication The Baltic Sentinel reported that in his book On My Watch: Leading NATO in a Time of War, released last autumn, Stoltenberg describes meetings with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in autumn 2021.
In a chapter covering the period from August 2021 to April 2023, Stoltenberg writes that despite opposition from the Baltic states and Poland, he suggested using the NATO-Russia Council to discuss Moscow’s proposal to establish a buffer zone along its borders.
According to the report, the United States soon afterward signalled it was open to discussing troop redeployments, a move The Baltic Sentinel said may have been coordinated with Stoltenberg. One of the conditions put forth by the Russian side involved withdrawing NATO troops to their 1997 borders, which Stoltenberg said would have been impossible.
The report described the episode as particularly unsettling for the Baltic states, noting that the proposal would not have affected Stoltenberg’s native Norway, which joined NATO before 1997 and shares a border with Russia. The Baltic states joined NATO in 2004.
Estonian diplomats cited by the outlet said Stoltenberg attempted to raise the issue without the knowledge of NATO’s eastern members.
Correction: the article was amended to clarify that Stoltenberg talked about a potential buffer zone, but did not back withdrawing NATO troops to 1997 borders.
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